Skip to main content
The largest online newspaper archive
A Publisher Extra® Newspaper

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 31

Location:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Issue Date:
Page:
31
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Observei By RUSSELL BAKER I i i i mw jit "I tVASHINCTON-Tlie Presidency has Rotten 11 nut of hand. True, the office ii important and Presidents are necessary. Whether the office is as important as Americans think it is, and whether Presidents are as necessary as 1 timmm i i as they think they are these questions are open to doubt. Tl OCIOHKK 22, VHM i Ji Judging from the intensity 1 1 strictly- I of public interest concentrated every four years on the choice of a President, one might conclude that the election is, if not the only event occurring Personal By SYDNEY J. HARRIS ii i'ih.

rtMrfiiflrr-i I LA v.ln.-,Mt I 1L. mm mm I f5C I mosl important. We persuade L- JLj ourselves that if this man is nm i fcj' Ju rp cf Tv about IOLLOWING YESTERDAY'S piece words, I began pondering on the melancholy fact that people often object more to the words for certain things than to the things i i 9 'if 1 themselves. This summer, a young husband of the jeunes.se doree was quarreling with his wife about the purchase of a station wagon. With three small children, she wanted him to buy one so that she could cart children and packages around more handily than in their little coupe.

lie refused to buv one. be -i uimi.s i in 'I'rtll tiwrT 'wrf -'Tittf- 'unfim r'rif irm i Hiffr-irum urn fi'iUMinn'ii scale catHe car sits atop models of small standard, scale, scale, the old with the small scale trains. At rear of other scale sizes, left photo, including, 027 scale, HO and TT. In photo at right, photo is scale-sized lumber mill and model from bottom, Buddy large standard, standard pocket match book is compared of the famous Trans-European Express. Space Exploration Leads fo Ultra-Miniature Trains N-Gauge Chugs Into Hobby Corners By RUSS BARNARD Post GoreHt Staff Wrlfr ADVANCEMENTS made possible by space exploration and other research have spread into nearly every field of technology electronics, nutrition, plastics, medicine, model railroads.

Yes, even model railroads. Mr. Baker elected, the hinge of destiny will open; that if this man loses, doomsday will be rescheduled forward. The assumptions seem doubtful. In the last SB years we have had five different presidents of varying temperament, political persuasion and intellectual capacity, yet it is difficult to see how if any one, or all five, had lost to his opponent, the world would have traveled a significantly different course over those 36 years.

Under Presidents Landon, Willkie, Dewey, Stevenson and Goldwater we would, in all likelihood, have cultivated a system of middle-class capitalism, fought World War II with a vigor that ended the depression, resisted Russian expansionism, fought to sustain an American position in Asia and reared a generation bred to affluence that would have been unhappy about the course of Twentieth Century history, The tax loopholes might have been written differently, the wealth spread in another pattern and government conducted in different style, but the men who are elevated by the American party system are never ahabs, at w'ar with man's destiny, but political brokers at the mercy of historical imperatives. As Tolstoy put it, it is not men who control history, but history that controls men. Americans seem to disagree with Tolstoy about their Presidents. Godlike powers are ascribed to them, both by people who love them and people who detest them, and the election of one is attended by all the passion worthy of an issue of national life and death. Whether Richard Nixon or Hubert Humphrey is elected two weeks from now is a matter of urgency to the Republican and Democratic parties, but those who see so little to choose between them that they threaten not to vote at all may be talking less outrageously than they like to think they are.

What many of these people the "I won't vote" set are really voicing is their belief that Presidents do control history. To sustain that belief, they need a large figure a man with "style" or "charisma" in the current cliches and the Messrs. Nixon and Humphrey sre at present very small figures indeed. Eugene McCarthy, with his low-key approach to the Presidency, put the office into a refreshing perspective when he talked about taking down the fence around the White House, living at home and commuting to the office every day. This may have been too light-hearted for an electorate that wants Zeus in the White House, but McCarthy was undoubtedly sound in trying to convey the idea that a President, after all, is only a President.

In his present Olympian manifestation, however, the President caters to the public yearning for godhood and, at the same time, surrounded by his bodyguard, jetting through the heavens on fleets of ever-ready aircraft, contained behind that White House fence or roaring through cities in his big limousine, he siso suggests a modern variation on the old Chicago beer baron. Neither Nixon nor Humphrey fills the mold. They are too much like the men you see riding the bus home at the end of the day. Who wants to be reminded that the power to push that button and order up doomsday has been handed, by act of Congress, to a man with absolutely no star quality at all? To listen to some of the arguments being made against them, one might think that the White House will become a midget house after Lyndon Johnson leaves. It is unlikely.

It would be healthy if the grandeur of the Presidency could be shrunk a bit, but it won't be. It would be nice to make a president, just once a week, fight that rush-hour traffic for a scat on the bus. It would be good to have air cause a "station wagon" is middle-class and suburban and connotes a great many tilings he dislikes about society and family life and so on. I happened to be present during the tiff, and suggested innocently that they buy a British-made station wagon. "What difference would that make?" the husband inquired.

"Well. 1 said, "in England. It's called a shooting-brake, and its original use was for hunting over rough terrain during the shooting season. It's not called a station wagon over there." I could see this patrician idea taking hold In his mind, and refrained from saying anything further. Sure enough, this fall the family is the proud owner of an imported "shooting-brake." which satisfies the domestic needs of the wife and the snobbery of the husband.

This is merely a somewhat ludicrous and exaggerated example of what most of us are like in our relationship with certain words. We believe more in the magic of terminology than we like to admit, and many a man has swallowed a business demotion when it was sugar-coated with an impressive but meaningless title. Until a year or so ago, my older son wouldn't eat cheese in any form, and wouldn't even consider eating anything that had cheese as one of the ingredients. Cheese. made him sick to his stomach, he averred.

Then, suddenly, he and his friends began patronizing pizza parlors and he came home demanding that we serve pizza for dinner some nights. "What?" I said, "don't you know that pizza has a cheese base, and that you abhor cheese in all its forms?" He looked appalled for a moment, then recovered: "Well. I still don't like cheese but pizza has the Italian kind of cheese that's different from the rest." We acquire a fixation against a name, and then treat the thing like the name. In medical science, the outstanding example has been the word "leprosy," considered a revolting and highly contagious disease since Biblical days when, actually, the ailment is now most treatable and tractable. But "leper" maintains its ancient connotation, despite all efforts, including its change of name to "Hansen's disease." The most recent newcomer to the model railroad field, the scale train, is an example.

The tiny trains are to a scale of .075 of an inch, or 1160 full size. Not until the technology of small size production reached an advanced stage in the early 1960s was this smallest-ever model made possible. It was the first new gauge to appear in 15 years when it first pulled in to the hobby shop market in 1964. Since that time it has enjoyed a continuing popularity, outdone only by the larger HO layouts. AT FIRST there were fears that the small-sized trains would stimulate only temporary interest because of their toy-like appearance.

When the scale first appeared it was called 000 and was a bit larger than its present size, but even then it was the choice of the apartment dweller because of its i datively small space requirements. The common 4x8 foot HO board will accommodate an scale layout offering three times as much relative space. The apartment 1 1 no longer has to be satisfied with a limited set. Thirty-three feet of scale track constitutes a full mile of life-size rail. The capacity of station and yard tracks became almost four times greater with the emergence of the new size, since two parallel tracks can bo laid for every single track in HO.

And since the cars are only half as long, each track holds twice as many cars. THE SCALE model trains como with complete detail generally comparable with HO and other equipment. Block signals, fully automatic switches and uncoupling controls, as well as direct current operation permitting instant reverse of train direction are available with most units. Rolling stock Is a i I down to interior furnishings, while locomotives are manufactured as near-exact replicas of many models. Pittsburgh hobby shops carry models which are replicas down to bar stools and magazine racks on the inside and steel rivets on the outside.

A GOOD working layout can be put together for less than $200 if the hobbyist is willing to do some model-building work, but many layouts run more than $1,000 in their finished form. The scale is most popular with the older generations. Youngsters seem to like larger models. However, the small outfits have enjoyed as much popu-1 a i among women as among men. Model railroad suppliers and hobby shop owners have argued the merits of the newest scale, with some charging it is only a fad that will fade into the shadows in the manner of the slot car craze.

Pholo scale Volkswagen models, placed on transport. Other accessories, including an operating bus line and complete village setting, are available to scale. Happznzd- Last Night devoted to the HO scale, is planning to construct an layout in the near future. Already many of its members are scale enthusiasts. But hobby shops and distributors alike agree that no matter how popular the new size becomes the HO unit will stay in the picture.

As one hobby shop operator put it: "When the transistor radio was developed people didn't throw out I heir table models, they just had two radios instead of one." "has not been exciting" but that the scale is progressing "as well as can be expe-cted." NO MATTER what the criticisms of the scale it has unquestionably grabbed second spot, behind only HO, in the eyes of most model railroad enthusiasts, and may be creeping into the lead. Model railroad clubs across the nation havo become scale supporters, with the Pittsburgh Model Railroad Club no exception. The Pittsburgh club, long Others say the tiny units are too expensive to build to an enjoyable level or that the scale has too many incompat-able track and stock units. had a poor showing after all the ballyhoo on how terrific it was going to be. It is overpriced," one hobby shop owner said.

Yet other shop owners have discontinued HO entirely in favor of the scale. Bill Coldilz, owner of Bill and Walt's Hobby Shop at llfi Smithficld Downtown, said his experience with scale By EARL WILSON ATEW YORK "Do you want to step into my 1 i clothes closet?" Tony Curtis asked me in his hotel suite. Who could forego an exclusive interview in Tony's clothes closet surrounded bv the linerv that cost him IIIIIHIIIIimiimillllllMMIIMIIItllllllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIMMimilMH Special Glass Developed Here by PPG strode into a closet-like cubicle where he whipped out innumerable gentlemen's creations from Italy including one of his bride's scarves that he wears instead of a tie which will make the tie industry groan with pain. "The very people that kidded me about being a hippie are convina me now." Tonv said I 4 1 President Gets New Ultra-Modern Limousine i 4 Mr. Wilson with vengelul glee and pride as he "modeled" first a formal suede jacket, then a topcoat planes taken away so that, when he wants to travel, he has to fight the airlines with the rest of us.

It would be healthy to have his command over newspapers and television diminished so that he could no longer spread himself all over page one and the tube unless be had something either vital or interesting to say. None of this, alas, is going to happen, no matter how vital it may be to put Presidents back in touch with the human situation here in the United States. Americans insist that the President be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and just human enough to look charming on magazine covers. Whichever man wins Nixon or Humphrey he will look like a giant in a year or two; whether a giant hero or a giant bum, history will decide in its own dispassionate way. Does it make any difference, then, which man wins? Of course it does, but not that much.

Quite possibly, neither man will be able to control the House of Representatives. If so, what are his chances of controlling history. Nw York Tlm Hem Servirt J7 ill'1' -f 4 Words Wisdom Bv WILLIAM and MARY MORRIS i -Wvs 1 ANEW presidential limousine, its clear roof and windows made of glass armor sections that provide safety and maximum security for occupants, was delivered today to the U.S. Secret Service at an informal presentation at the White House. Glass for the new limousine was produced by PPG Industries at the request of the Secret Service.

The new lightweight glass armor is the outgrowth of research conducted by PPG scientists in developing transparent armor for Army tanks. PPG, which provided the glass armor for older presidential limousine now in service, has been supplying glass for presidential automobiles for 20 years. The glass was developed at company's Harmarville Research Laboratory, and was manufactured at Harmarville and the Creighton plant. THIS TS the latest in a line of specially built Lincoln Continentals, Reports from Detroit have put the cost of the new limo-sine as high as $500,000, but. spokesmen for both the Secret Service and Ford said that figure is completely out of line.

They gave no figure of their own. In any event, the cost to the government and the lax-payers will be comparatively trivial. Markley said "iff older "I designed it myself it like a coachman's jacket out of Napoleon." Being in Tony Curtis' clothes closet struck me as ludicrous. "Is that your wig there in the -corner nn somebody's wooden "No. that's my wife's" "Do you still wear bouts?" "Yes.

but it's too warm for hools now, I wear wedgies now." Despite the jollity, Tony's ideas, he insisted and 1 was convinced, are practical. "Shirts I wear open at the neck" Oh Lord, there noes the button industry! "with a scarf and if it's warm I open the scarf, if it's cold I close it." He also likes sweaters and had something to say about cufflinks but Id's try to retain one or two triends. "Mv clothes are functional. How about this dinner jacket I "To wear when he wins the Oscar for 'The Boston said a very bashful press agent. The lapels were slate grey and two of his bride's scarves were used as linings, His bride, very pretty Penny Leslie Allen, called out In him, "I saw some Nehru pajamas in a store today" but Tony seemed cool to Mich flipancy.

Tony believes that his friends in The Bronx will keep the faith and that the strong roles he's playing in "Thr Boston Stranger'' and in the Bugsy Sieel story that he docs nrl prevent iiim Irmn losing any male fans As for he girls -well, his bride said "Woat d'i 1 think about his altitude about lilies? I adore it, I love it!" Rut the interview was over. I came out of the cHtsct. President Johnson yesterday accepted delivery of this 2 1 -foot limousine, built by Lincoln-Mercury. yrE DON'T USUALLY react favorably to efforts to force our language into arbitrary patterns, to create new words where there are perfectly good words already around, or to substitute one word for another by executive decree, so to speak. For instance, we've never been much taken by the efforts of the scientists to force "flammable" on us where 'inflammable" has done satisfactory duty for generations.

And the physicists' insistence of, substituting "hertz" for "cycle" may make the car rental people happy, but it drives us traditional "kilocyclers" right up the wall. However, one instance of word substitution strikes us as well worthwhile and we hereby add our support to I ho movement to rename "firemen" as "hrefighlers." It makes sense. After all, men who stroke furnaces are properly called "firemen" and Ihey encourage and coddle fires. So let's call the men who defend our homes against fir1 liy Hie name they have rained by countless acts of bravery and self-sacrif ice FIREFIGHTERS. conditioning units for the front and rear compartments.

Twin two-way radio and telephone in nications systems. A section of he roof which can be opened so the President can stand upright as he rides along. For formal occasions, a limousine was leased to the government for about $1,000 a year. He said the new leasing arrangement has not been worked out yet. It has such useful gadgets as: A public address system the President can use to seak to crowds outside, and a sound system to bring inside the reactions from crowds while the windows remain closed.

automobile used for official duties at the White House." The new limousine replaces a version which traveled more than a million miles by air and by road in the service of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon R. Johnson The old car, which was made in the interest of greater security a er the Kennedy assassination, is still rated in excellent shape and will slav in the White House fleet. A rear bumper which folds down to lorm a plat form for Secret Service men and a hand rail for them which can he raised from he back of 1 tie car. THE Motor Company's Lincoln Mercury division said in a statement that: "The new presidential limousine has inure advanced security, communicalioiis and engineering features than any black vinyl cover lor the glass roof A to iicvent over- healinc while the cat' slands in the sun, a reflective cover Separate heating and 4)lr of aluminum fabric.

Get access to Newspapers.com

  • The largest online newspaper archive
  • 300+ newspapers from the 1700's - 2000's
  • Millions of additional pages added every month

Publisher Extra® Newspapers

  • Exclusive licensed content from premium publishers like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  • Archives through last month
  • Continually updated

About Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Archive

Pages Available:
2,102,932
Years Available:
1834-2024